In Fire and Hemlock, Thomas Piper is an unpleasant, snarling man who runs a hardware store -- Thomas Piper Hardware -- in Stow-on-the-Water.

Thomas Piper is also the quotidian identity which Thomas Lynn and Polly initially invent for Tan Coul -- an ironmonger in Stow-on-the-Water who is unaware of his heroic nature until Hero arrives and tells him. He resembles Don Quixote, since he is tall and thin, with an active, untrained imagination. His first heroic deed is driving a giant out of the local supermarket; he accomplishes this at Hero's urging, despite his own insistence that there are no such things as giants.